During cutting operations; such as dredging, excavating, trenching, tunneling, mining operations, etc.; tooth systems and teeth are subject to large cutting forces (e.g., when hitting a piece of hard rock), which results in large material stresses and eventually causes teeth to wear down and/or break off. Because of this, teeth have to be changed frequently. Current locking systems to secure teeth to adapters typically use a threaded rod which must be tightened to secure the two together. One such system is found in CN103174187, which shows a tooth for excavator machinery. The tooth includes an integral wing which extends from a back of the tooth. A snap ring can be secured around the wing to secure the tooth to the holder.
A connection system for cutting teeth for a strip mining system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,037. The detachable cutting teeth in such a system are received within receptacles and are connected with pins extending in a direction perpendicular to the receptacle. The teeth also include rubber rivets extending from the side walls, though these are to provide resilient, shock-absorbing force to reduce shifting of the teeth when inserted and do not form part of the retaining system. The teeth are locked and held in place using retaining pins which extend through a channel within the side walls and through the teeth.
Another connection system for a tooth is shown in US2009/0000159, which discloses a tooth that slides into an adaptor, and is held in place with locking means. The locking means connect to the adaptor and form part of the tooth, and can be a hook connection.
Due to the weight of a tooth in such systems, the changing of teeth typically requires two people for connecting or disconnecting a tooth. One person must hold the tooth while the other person works to connect or loosen the tooth from the connector or locking system. In other systems, teeth can be mounted on only one side of the cutter or the teeth will fall out of the adapter due to these issues. Thus, the time and/or persons required for changing teeth can be significant.